Welcome to Year 2!

Important Information for Summer Term:

 Homework is due in every EVERY FRIDAY. Homework will usually consist of spellings, time tables practice, and either a SPaG, Maths or Reading Comprehension task. This must be completed on time please.

 There will be a spelling test EVERY FRIDAY (the spellings will be included in the homework pack). Results will be sent home so that you are able to focus on specific spellings and times tables with your child. We will also be focusing on the 10 times table this term, however we will also revisit the 2s and 5s. Children will be tested on these regularly.

 PE is on THURSDAYS and FRIDAYS but we advise you to leave your PE kits in school all week as we may do PE more than once.

 Make sure you read at least 3 times a week in order to improve your reading skills and win prizes! Reading records will be collected and checked at the end of every week but please make sure you bring your reading book and reading record to school every day.

Any questions, please just ask.

Check out the 'Our Learning Journeys' section of our class page to see all the mini-learning journeys we get up to in Year 2!

Just click on the 'Our Learning Journeys' section above to explore! 

Our current topic is...

Here's what we'll be learning about across the curriculum this half term (Summer Term 1):

As a focus for this half term, the children will be revising all their previous learning in preparation for their upcoming KS1 SATS tests in May 2022.

TOPIC – Topic lessons will be interweaved, wherever possible, throughout the curriculum, forming the heart of our learning journey. This half term, our focus in topic is Geography. Our class topic called ‘Life in Kenya’ will take us on a journey to the country of Kenya in the continent of Africa. This topic will build upon the children’s prior knowledge from their previous topic called ‘Planet Earth’. In this unit, pupils study the human and physical geography of Kenya, comparing it to that of the UK. They will also explore this through various areas of the wider curriculum, such as Art, Music and Science. The teaching of Geography follows the ARK Curriculum scheme, which is an extremely comprehensive, knowledge based resource to embed learning in children’s long term memory.

LITERACY - The key skills we will be concentrating on this half term are:

• Subordinating conjunctions/coordinating conjunctions
• Apostrophe for possession
• Commas in a list
• Expanded noun phrases
• Statement, Question, Exclamation, Command
• Rhetorical questions
• Suffixes/prefixes
• Apostrophes for contraction

These skills will be taught through the following genres of writing:

• Persuasive letter to local council about getting more bins in public places
• Information text about Kenya

READING - We have 30-minute ‘Book Talk’ sessions/lessons every morning, practicing skills of inference, retrieval, sequencing, prediction, vocabulary while also embedding and encouraging an innate love of reading. Individual 1:1 reading also takes place each week. We aim for at least two 1:1 reads each week; during busy times, however, it may only be one. This half term we will be studying the following books (and more):

1. ‘The Colour of Home’ by Mary Hoffman
2. ‘Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa’ by Jeanette Winter
3. ‘For You Are A Kenyan Child’ by Kelly Cunnane
4. ‘We Are Water Protectors’ by Carole Lindstrom
5. ‘Last Tree in the City’ by Peter Carnavas
6. ‘If You Were Me and Lived in ...Kenya: A Child's Introduction to Cultures around the World: 5’ by Carole P Roman

MATHS – This half term, the children will be consolidating their learning on Measurement: a topic which covers money, time, length/height, mass, capacity and temperature. They will also be regularly practicing their timetables to increase confidence and ability. This half term, Year 2 will be revising their understanding of the 2s, 5s and 10s. This half term, we will be focusing on Time and Geometry (Properties of Shape and Position and Direction).

Measurement:

• Time

Geometry:

• Properties of Shape
• Position and Direction

SCIENCE – In Science, the children will be exploring a new unit entitled ‘Protecting Our Environment’. This will be linked to the learning in our previous class topic, ‘Planet Earth’, as we explore the different lifestyles and habitats of different species around the world. The teaching of Science follows the ARK Curriculum scheme, which is an extremely comprehensive, knowledge based resource to embed learning in children’s long term memory.

RE – This half term, the children will be learning about a topic entitled ‘Spread The Word’. The children will learn about the importance of giving and receiving messages and how these themes are represented and implemented in the teachings of the church.

As part of our Topic Day, we consolidated our knowledge of the seven continents and then began learning about the five oceans of planet Earth: Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Southern and Arctic. We learnt about the difference between an ocean and a sea and about the creatures and life that live in them. We then researched the oceans and created an eye-catching information poster about the five oceans of Planet Earth.

WORLD BOOK DAY

In topic we have been exploring two very significant figures in history: Harold Godwinson and William of Normandy. We learnt about their fight for the throne and then we took on the role of the Witenagemot (Anglo-Saxon government) to debate who should be the next King of England in the ‘1066 election’.

We worked in two teams/groups: Team Godwinson and Team Normandy. We then fought for our chosen candidate, using reasons why they should be the next in line for the throne.

Black History Month

Don't forget our 'This Is Me' statements...